The present invention relates to an attachment for notebook binders, and more particularly to an attachment secured to a ring binder and supporting an article such as an electronic calculator, an electronic organizer or a palm top computer. These items are collectively referred to as "electronic processors" and may be used both independently of, or in conjunction with, information contained within the binder.
In recent years many electronic processors have become sufficiently small and inexpensive that it may be desirable to keep the processing system with a specific binder. The binder may contain documents related to a special project or class of projects. It is thus desirable to affix an electronic processor to a binder in such a way that it can be easily and conveniently used while assuring that it remains associated with the binder.
For optimal utility, such attachments should be firmly and securely affixed to the binder, in a manner that renders the article usable inside, outside, or alongside the binder. When the article is not being used, it is advantageous to position the article so that the keyboard and the display screen, typically the most sensitive components of the article, are protected.
The typical currently available device for attaching electronic calculators and the like to a ring binder is a substantially flat rectangular panel, commonly made of plastic, with apertures near one of its edges adapted to be mounted on two or more of the binder's rings. The article is usually secured to the panel so that when the panel is mounted inside the binder, the keyboard and the display screen are consistently accessible on one side of the rings.
Thus, while the panel can be mounted on the rings of the binder in a conventional manner anywhere between the front and back covers, the article secured to the panel can not be accessed concurrently with information from the same side of the rings. Even if the article is to be accessed concurrently with information found on the opposite side of the rings, but spread over a number of different pages, the panel must be repeatedly dismounted and remounted on the rings of the binder if it is to be accessible concurrently with that information. This is cumbersome and clearly undesirable. Moreover, on occasion it may be beneficial to use the article independently of information contained within the binder while the binder is being closed, but without detaching it from the binder. This is clearly impossible when the article is secured to a panel mounted on the rings of the binder.
The above drawbacks limit the utility of most currently available devices for attaching articles such as electronic calculators, other electronic processors or other devices to ring binders. It should, therefore, be appreciated that there is a need for an improved ring binder attachment which would reliably secure such articles to a binder, be conveniently usable in conjunction with, as well as independently of, information contained within the binder, and be readily accessible inside, outside or alongside the binder. The article should also be readily removable to enable functions such as convenient replacement of batteries, exchange or addition of printed circuit cards or modems, downloading onto RAM cards and/or connection to a separate processor such as a personal computer or printer. The present invention fulfills that need.